


Year of the Dog

by Accidentallytechohazardous



Category: Bleach
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon, Reminiscing, whats better than this guys petting dogs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2019-03-16 22:07:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13645392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Accidentallytechohazardous/pseuds/Accidentallytechohazardous
Summary: While out and exploring the amazing spectacle that is the World of the Living, Renji and Ichigo make a friend. A quadrupedal friend. Renji, as he is want to do, swims through his thoughts.





	Year of the Dog

Believe it or not, but Renji actually does try to get along with most people. It rarely works the way that he intended, but thats life for you. Renji is a punk, and he’s loud, and he’s too old to pretend these aren’t just his innate truths, so he might as well lean into chaos and try not to worry too much what people think about him.

Ichigo is a good example of this principle, because Renji sometimes gets the feeling he never knows what Ichigo really thinks about him. They’re good friends, sure. Allies, even brothers-in-arms at this point after everything they’ve gone through. But all heroics aside, taking away the whole Martyr Complex and such frivolities, Ichigo can’t hide the fact that he’s as big a surly, cranky introvert as they come. Renji knows that Ichigo doesn’t mind hanging out with him and stuff. But he doesn’t know if Ichigo, like, thinks Renji is cool or anything.

Despite his best intentions, despite the tattoos and the big muscles Renji probably doesn’t successfully do a lot to look very cool. Because he tried to stop himself, he really did. But he did happen to spy literally the biggest, fattest, ugliest, cutest bulldog Renji has ever seen in his entire life. He’s not made of stone.

“So handsome! Ooh, hi there, big boy!” Renji coos in a comically high voice, giving in to his own inner demons and digging his fingers into this chubby dog’s many rolls of fat to get down to the good, good scritches.

The bulldog on the receiving end of this attention looks at Renji with big, warm, loving, and he wiggles on his four fat, stubby legs. Meaty jowls absolutely vibrate with excitement as a big, pink tongue lols out of his mouth and deposits drool onto the sidewalk, the dog leans into Renji’s enthusiastic pets.

This dog is so, so good. This is the best dog ever. This is the best day of Renji’s life. “You are so pretty!”

Meanwhile, on the very fringes of Renji’s attention, he is aware of Ichigo witnessing this display with a kind of abject horror. And yes, Renji is perfectly aware of how dumb he looks crouching on the ground to babytalk this dog,  _thank you_! Though he has to appreciate this is probably not what Ichigo was imagining when the substitute resigned to hanging out with Renji today on one of their rare mutual days off. Ichigo is a fool. Because only a fool would let an amazing canine companion get away from them un-pet.

“We’re- uh, I’m sorry about him.” Ichigo says to the woman that this wonderful dog is attached to. The woman holding the leash is, Renji is sure, very nice and lovely and pretty and all, but if you asked Renji he could not remember a single detail about her because look at this dog!

“No, it’s okay!” She says very generously. Years of personal experience has taught Renji that when a 6’2 stranger with full-body tattoos marches up to you on the street, ‘this is good’ is probably not the first reaction of most people. But she takes it remarkably well. Dog-lover solidarity. Hell yes. “It really is fine. Really, I’m just surprised! He doesn’t usually warm up to strangers so fast.”

She’s probably talking about the dog and not Renji. Renji applies both hands to either side of the dog’s face to squish his big, chubby cheeks as the canine’s stubby tail wags so furiously it threatens to fly right off of his loaf-like body. “What’s his name?”

“His name is Bo.” The owner says helpfully, not realizing she is only adding to Renji’s mounting insane delight.

“Bo!” Renji repeats, and the dog waddles and wiggles with great intensity at being addressed by his own name. As if to say _yes! Yes! I’m Bo! That’s me! More pets now!_

Ichigo looms over Renji’s very undignified crouched position, and he can feel the teen’s respect for him dropping by the second. “Seriously? Are you some kind of dog-whisperer now?” Renji is sure that he has some kind of loopy grin of childlike wonder on his own face.

Finally, Renji resigns to standing up, uncurling his whole body to rise to full height. Bo gently ‘boof’s in disappointment, his dark little eyes set under piles of wrinkles to make it look like he’s mad at the disappearance of Renji’s affection. “He is such a good boy!” Yes, Renji is still mostly addressing the dog.

“Oh, thank you so much!” The owner says, and her voice actually drips with genuine appreciation. Renji kind of gets the impression that not everyone appreciates this fine specimen the way that he does. Some people might be kind of scared to approach a dog this big, with teeth visible under the layered perma-scowl of Bo’s wrinkled lips. “You’ve just made his day, honestly.”

A little tug is applied to the leash. “Okay, Bo, let’s go. We need to let these two get back to their business.” Bo remains firmly rooted to the ground, looking at Renji imploringly. Finally, however, the owner starts walking down the sidewalk, and the bulldog dejectedly turns and trails after her. Returning to the important business of being a dog, sniffing things and peeing on piles of snow and what have you. Renji watches Bo waddle away, the massive girth of the dog making his walking strut almost more of a roll.

Renji is aware of Ichigo giving him this bemused side-eye as they return to their walking pace, Renji’s hands finding their way into his coat pocket and the world being just a little bit brighter for the sheer fact that it has dogs in it.

Ichigo’s brows rise under his unruly, orange bangs. “Feeling better now?”

“What can I say,” Renji grins toothily in response. “I appreciate the finer things in life.”

Eyelashes flutter over brown eyes, the lines of Ichigo’s brow furrowing in a thoroughly uncharming manner. From the jut of Ichigo’s chin, Renji gleans the sense that he actually is a little relaxed and amused, even if his own Youthful Ennui refuses to reveal it. “You’re so weird sometimes.”

That’s very kind of Ichigo, to modify that statement with ‘sometimes.’

Renji straightens his own sweatshirt collar, a little frustrated that he keeps getting strands of his own long ponytail pinned underneath it. Modern clothes for humans sure are complicated. “Not a big fan of dogs, maybe?”

“I mean, they’re fine.” Ichigo’s statement trails off into a thoughtful humm. When Renji looks over to take in his expression, he sees Ichigo’s lips pursed into a flat, thin line. “I just never really was a dog person, I think. Not the way you seem to be, apparently.”

Renji’s mind is a traitorous fiend, and it takes this precise moment to remind him exactly how loaded a statement that is. He remembers when the only thing people knew about him in Soul Society was Inuzuri. ‘ _Hanging Dog_ ’ stamped over his soul. A taste like sour metal spreads over Renji’s tongue, but he shakes it off quickly enough, lips peeling apart over a toothy grin. “The Substitute Shinigami of Karakura is scared of lil’ puppies?”

Immediately, Ichigo’s expression darkens. He looks churlish, like a little kid pouting. “Did I say I was scared of them? No. Besides, you saw the size of your new best friend back there. That thing was huge! Like a big, blubbery bulldozer.”

Renji puts up his hands, fingers curled like terrifying claws. “And he was a vicious killer! You could see it in his bloodthirsty eyes. I barely got away with my own life!” He fully expects the jab to his ribs before Ichigo’s fist even makes contact. It’s not a heavy blow, but Renji dutifully doubles over to protect his side from further attack. He hyena-cackles over the sound of Ichigo’s fussing, the sound of Renji’s own laughter ringing in his ears as it echoes down the street.

It feels good to feel like this. A brief moment in the eye of the storm of the world.

It’s still cold and wintery in Karakura. The pre-spring bluster. There’s not much snow on the ground in the town, all paved roads and sidewalks for the foot traffic, but flurries of powdery snowflakes bravely continue to fall atop the heads of pedestrians where anything above ground level may catch them. Ichigo himself has quite a powdering of white nestled in his vibrant hair, looking like one of those baked confections with the sugar sprinkled on top.

_This could have all disappeared_ , a voice from the back of Renji’s head rings forward, stomping all over Renji’s good mood. One of Renji’s flaws- and there sure are a lot of them, depending on who you ask- is his inability to live in the moment. It seems like whenever distress reaches out and catches him out of the blue, it’s because he’s lamenting the past or obsessing about the future.

But this is here. The cold biting Renji’s fingers. The gray, endless sky above. The shops full of people living their lives, each one a complicated universe in themselves of choices and consequences.

The sound of Ichigo’s voice shakes Renji from his musing, crashing against the train of his thoughts. “Y’know… I didn’t wanna say this out of the blue, but I actually used to think that you didn’t like dogs.”

Renji slows the pace of his walk to get an eyeful of chocolates in a boutique window. They have little frosting roses on the top. He dully remembers Valentine’s Day is around the corner. “Cuz’ a’ the Rukongai thing?”  

He meant to say it kind of bluntly and flatly, as if to give the impression that he didn’t really care. But that, matched with his act of deliberate distraction only makes it actually seem like Renji is being cold. Walling Ichigo out by showing him Renji’s back. He doesn’t mean to do that.

“Yeah, that…”

They’ve never talked about this. Renji’s conversations on this topic, even with people he’s close to and that he loves, have been sparse and mostly uncomfortable. His past is a roadblock in the way of other things. Just an inconvenient obstacle to be avoided, never dared to be addressed. In the reflection of the window pane, Renji can see a glimpse of Ichigo standing next to him and looking off into the distance with a weird little frown on his face, looking translucent and ghostly in the off-pink of the shop window’s gleam. Ichigo’s straight back and bowed head gives the appearance of one berating himself for even broaching the subject, which is such a painfully Ichigo thing to do.

Renji forgets how transparent he is sometimes. The majority of Renji’s life story is basically public gossip at this point in the Seireitei. And isn’t that kind of fair? That history is the stain that painted Renji’s entire life for the rest of his adulthood, it’s the mold that shaped his path from the first day he could remember henceforth. Hell, Ichigo is the only person Renji has actually extrapolated the whole abridged, gruesome tale to- on his knees and bawling his eyes out after getting his ass thorough kicked to kingdom come, no less.

(Sidenote: Was not Renji’s proudest moment, for the record. That particular episode of ‘Renji Acts Like a Dick and it Comes Back to Bite Him in the Ass’ was a low, low point indeed. Don’t try any of this at home, kids. Not even Renji should have tried this at home.)

Rukongai mutt. Stray pup. Mongrel hound. Kuchiki’s pet. Renji could make a colorful list with all his nicknames, and he can’t get away from them even out here in another fucking universe.

He could get mad, or defensive. He could do a lot of things, say a lot of things. But instead, Renji makes a great display of casually stretching his arms up over his head, arching his back as if working out a kink in his muscles and bringing his hands to lock his fingers behind his head. “I like dogs. They’re smart, and loyal, and resilient. That’s it.”

He avoids looking back at Ichigo for a while, as if hoping this situation will kind of fade away with the more temporal distance he gives it. But when curiosity continues to gnaw on Renji, he does give in and slide a secret glance at the substitute. There’s a thin smile almost covered by the collar of Ichigo’s coat, a befuddling expression that Renji can’t fully interpret.

“I guess I didn’t think of it that way. Dogs are pretty cool.”

Renji for the life of him can’t figure out how this kid’s mind works.


End file.
